Cottage Fever
by GoldenManekiNeko
Summary: After being bitten by a diseased animal, Fluttershy falls victim to a dangerous, incurable virus. Grimdark, rated M for Gore.
It was a bright, warm, beautiful, sunny morning as usual in the small, humble town of Ponyville, and the Element of Kindness, known as Fluttershy was spending her lovely morning tending to her garden. She had just finished watering the flowers in her flowerbed when a low, growling noise startled her out of her concentration, causing her to drop her watering can. She turned sharply to view the source of the noise, only to see a scrawny, sickly-looking wolf, weakly limping out of the woods. Fluttershy could clearly see the outline of this poor creature's skeleton as patches of its fur were missing and a yellow-green, foamy substance was leaking from its bared teeth. The Element of kindness taking over instead of fear immediately told Fluttershy that this poor creature was sick and hurting, in need of her assistance.

Fluttershy slowly fluttered over to the poor, sickly creature to assist it as the creature fearfully took a few steps back, giving the pale-yellow Pegasus a warning growl while brisling its fur. Though the creature was showing obvious signs of aggression, Fluttershy felt no fear toward the creature as she rarely feared animals and very well knew that if an animal were wounded or sick, that it would be expected of them to become aggressive.

"You poor, little creature...There, there, now...I'm not going to hurt you..." Fluttershy sympathetically reassured as she outstretched her hoof to beckon the creature over to her, but the creature just sank it's teeth into the Mare's wrist, causing the poor Pegasus to cry out in pain. Fluttershy clutched her foreleg close to her chest as the sickly wolf scurried away, back into the woods.

The wounded Element of Kindness limped back into her cottage to dress her wound, sobbing softly from the throbbing-pain in her wrist as she did so. This wasn't the first time she had been bitten by a sick or wounded animal, but it never ceased to cause the poor Mare an immense amount of pain. Over a week had gone by, and Fluttershy had since forgotten about her incident with the wolf. She was now facing a new problem as she seemed to be running a fever. She just made herself some soup and stayed in bed for the rest of the week.

After another week had gone by, Fluttershy's fever had not improved at all and she was now finding that she was beginning to have a hard time swallowing. Every time she would try to drink some hot tea or water or try to consume some of her soup, a strong, gag-reflex would kick in, causing her to empty the contents of her stomach. Unable to eat or drink anything, the pale-yellow Pegasus soon began to waste away. After a while, she couldn't even bring herself to swallow her own saliva anymore as it just poured out of her mouth in a foamy, yellow-green substance. She analyzed her appearance in her bathroom mirror: her eyes were red, puffy and bloodshot and her pupils were dilated.

"O-Oh goodness...I look even worse than I feel..." Fluttershy noted with a cough as she ran a hoof through her disheveled mane. She was startled out of her thoughts by a sudden, loud knock at the door. She quickly slipped a sanitary mask over her snout to keep whoever was at the door from catching the horrible sickness she had, before answering the door to none-other than Rarity.

The white Unicorn's large grin quickly sank into a concerned frown once she saw the sickly state that her friend was in.

"Oh goodness, darling! You look dreadful! Are you alright?!" Rarity gasped.

"Y-Yes...I think I just have the Flu..." Fluttershy murmured in a weak, raspy tone. Something about Rarity appeared different to her; She felt a sense of paranoia, as if she needed to be afraid of Rarity, as if Rarity were going to hurt her at any-given moment. Fluttershy quickly shook these thoughts away as she sat up on her hind-legs, staring down at her hooves in disbelief. She had the urge to plow both of them into Rarity's pretty face, but why?

Rarity was her friend; how could she be afraid of her? How could she want to hurt her.

"Should I come back another time, darling?" Rarity questioned out of concern.

"No! No! I'm fine, really...What can I do for you?" Fluttershy asked as she tried in vain to ignore her horrifying thoughts and urges.

"I was just wondering if you could watch Opal-Essance for me this weekend; I have a business trip to attend and I don't want to leave the poor dear all by herself..." Rarity explained.

"O-Of course, Rarity, anything for a friend..." Fluttershy agreed with a forced smile that was hidden by her sanitary mask. It was against her better judgement to take care of her friend's cat while she was in such an unstable and possibly contagious state, but her kind nature has always made her a bit of a pushover.

"Thank you, darling! I do hope you get over that dreadful sickness soon..." Rarity grinned, before taking her leave.

"I do too..." Fluttershy sighed as she weakly closed her front door. She then collapsed into her own door, gradually sliding down it until she was now lying on the floor, against the door. She felt so sick, every part of her body ached and her mind was beginning to grow fuzzy. She began to feel paranoid, isolated and she felt as if everyone and everything around her wanted to harm her.

The world around her was dark, it didn't feel real, poor Fluttershy felt as if she were trapped within a nightmare. She was startled out of her train of thought when her sanitary mask was suddenly pulled back and sent flying back into her snout, smacking her in the face. The pale-yellow Pegasus reared up onto her hind-legs, circling her forelegs as she let out a sickly, whinnying sound. When she fell back onto all four of her shaky legs, her now-broken sanitary mask fell to the floor, revealing her foaming-mouth and her now-bared teeth. Her puffy, red, bloodshot, dilated, wild eyes darted around the room as she began to breath heavily.

"Who DID THAT?!" She shrieked from both paranoia and irritability. She snorted when she felt her bunny, Angel kick her foreleg angrily. Angel was out of carrots and he rudely wanted to let Fluttershy know about this fact.

"Hungry?! If you're so hungry, then why don't you just EAT DIRT?!" Fluttershy snapped, spewing her foamy, infected saliva into Angel's face. Angel took a few steps back as he was surprised and even a bit intimidated by Fluttershy's sudden aggression. He decided that he wasn't going to let his normally-pushover of an owner talk to him like that, so he promptly decided to give Fluttershy a good smack, firm across the face to remind her where her place was.

This, apparently was the wrong thing to do as this seemed to only anger the rabid Pegasus further. Fluttershy snorted once again, before rising up onto her hind-legs and swirling her forelegs once again. She then came down onto her pet bunny with a great force, blood splattering all over her forelegs and face. Fluttershy then whinnied once again and began to kick and destroy everything in her house, like an angry mule. She stopped her rampage when she began to feel lightheaded.

Her vision began to blur and the room began to spin. A tunnel of darkness surrounded her as she collapsed onto the floor and fell into a deep coma. The weekend had finally arrived and Rarity was heading over to Fluttershy's cottage, using her magic to carry her cat, Opal's pet carrier. She extended her fore-hoof to knock on Fluttershy's door but was surprised to find it creek open because the hinges had been broken. She winced in disgust and suppressed the urge to gag as she was immediately met with the overwhelming-stench of rot that was wafting from Fluttershy's cottage.

"F-Fluttershy, darling?! I'm here with Opal!" Rarity called out as she timidly stepped into her friend's cottage. She stopped when her hoof had come in contact with a soft but dense object. Rarity looked down to see what her hoof had come in contact with but then she shrieked in horror at the sight that was lying on the ground, in front of her.

Lying on the floor in front of her, was the cold, lifeless, rotting corpse of her once-friend, Fluttershy. She was in the third stage of decomposition as several of her animals were picking away at her corpse. Rarity quickly ran outside to vomit. She had just talked to Fluttershy a week ago; how could she have died so suddenly? Rarity was then startled out of her thoughts by a faint, growling noise bellowing out from the darkness of Fluttershy's cottage.

Rarity slowly but fearfully turned to see a majority of Fluttershy's animals standing in the doorway, all glaring at her menacingly and all having a yellow-green, foamy substance leaking from their bared teeth.

"No...No! What are you doing?! Stay back!" Rarity shrieked as she was mercilessly attacked by all of Fluttershy's rabid animals.

THE END...


End file.
